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The first four Chinese Climate Solvers were presented at an award ceremony in Beijing yesterday. These enthusiastic entrepreneurs were recognized for their solutions for more efficient battery charging, industrial cooling, refrigeration and waste-heat power generation.
The unofficial theme for the event turned out to be “opportunities”. As the fundament of the Climate Solver initiative itself, the entrepreneurs as well as invited experts repeatedly pointed to the opportunities offered by climate innovations and entrepreneurship. The mere fact that there are over 50 million SME’s in China is an opportunity for innovation and job creation. Mr. CHEN Xin from China Center for Promotion of SME Development said that the Climate Solver program is very meaningful now that low cost/low quality products are no longer competitive. Their focus is now on innovative SME’s and business models.
The challenge of securing financing was one of the important points raised during the discussions. For example, the fact that although solution developers in early phases may lack collateral, they do have IPR which could be used for securing credits. Mr. ZHU Daniel, a venture investor from Tsing Capital seemed to agree, and said "While traditional banks look at a company's history, we look toward their future." In this context it was promising to hear that some banks have seen the opportunity for developing financing products based on the specific needs of SME's, e.g. joint guarantees shared by several companies.
Mr. CHEN Zhengli from China Merchants Bank pointed out that climate innovations were well aligned with their Green Credit Strategy, “Climate Solver companies are just the kind of customers we want to find.” Judging from the interest from both participants and media, there are substantial opportunities for further developing the Climate Solver platform in China.
Mr ZHOU Qing from newly awarded Climate Solver Yunhe Refrigeration Technology, recollected learning about WWF’s conservation work as a child and said, “The Climate Solver award is the best recognition we can get.”
"An incredibly inspiring event overall," according to Magnus Emfel, Manager Climate Innovations at WWF Sweden, responsible for the expansion of Climate Solver in both China and India."If these four innovations are any indication of the potential for Chinese solutions, then I can hardly wait to see them succeed and achieve their global climate mitigation potential!" says Emfel emphatically.

BEIJING, Dec. 13, 2012 -- WWF today announced the four winners of its first annual Climate Solver China Awards, the result of a year long search for products developed by China’s small and medium-sized enterprises that are the elusive triple threat: innovative, adept at meeting a market need, and help reduce society’s CO2 emissions.

“We’re looking for technologies that have it all,” said LU Lunyan, Director, Climate & Energy Programme, WWF-China. “Being good at the single variable of reducing CO2 emissions isn’t good enough. Our award winners are also very capable at meeting a market need, so there’s the potential for large scale purchasing that would allow them to be out in the real world with enough ubiquity to significantly bring down humanity’s CO2 emission levels. And the reason they’re good at both the business and low carbon fronts is because the underlying technology is so new and different.”

The announcement of the winning products is the culmination of an intensive search and review effort, with final selection of the award winners completed by an expert panel who judged according to five criteria—emissions reduction potential, innovativeness, technology reliability, market potential, and supporting business strategy—to ensure multifaceted winners.

The Climate Solver China Awards mark the first time the awards have also been organized outside the origin country: the Climate Solver (Sweden) initiative started in 2008, and this year’s four Chinese innovations join six Swedish innovations announced in November. India will join as the third organizing country in 2013.

“The purpose of the Climate Solver initiative has always been to inspire the world with opportunities for tackling climate change made possible by innovations developed by climate entrepreneurs,” said Magnus Emfel, Manager of Climate Innovations, WWF-Sweden. “With all these solutions at hand, the question is what’s stopping us from putting them to practice? Together with investors, corporations, and policymakers, we want to enable faster global deployment of technologies for energy efficiency and renewable energy. I’m very pleased, but not surprised, to see a multitude of climate innovations also from China and look forward to the day they become the tried and true in the marketplace.”

You’ve seen the huge cooling towers that dot China’s landscape marking a power station, chemical plant, or any other business that needs to transfer a large amount of waste heat to the atmosphere. Many of these towers require electric fans to aid in the cooling process, and the electric fans add to power bills, are an added danger for workers, and emit CO2 emissions with their power use. Xingfei’s Hydrodynamic Cooling Tower design is able to take full advantage of all the water already circulating in these massive cooling towers and use it to drive hydrodynamic fans, making electric fans unnecessary in the cooling process.

In China, refrigeration, from air conditioning to freezing, is a major consumer of electricity and hence emitter of CO2 emissions. Beyond that, the commonly used refrigerants are greenhouse gases much worse than CO2. Yunhe’s Thermal-Chemical Absorption Refrigeration System replaces electricity as the power source with heat from diesel engine exhaust, industrial steam, or even solar energy. Further, it replaces greenhouse gases as the refrigerant with ammonia, and gets rid of electric compressors altogether. You can already find Yunhe technology in the air conditioners, ice makers, and freezers of some fishing boats.

China has grown into the world’s largest steel producer. And all that steel making produces vast amounts of chemical gases containing vast amounts of heat, which represents not only great wastage of chemical and thermal energy, but also air pollution. CCEPC’s Low Heat Value Gas Safe and Clean Power Generation System can take these otherwise waste gases, combust them to create greater heat, and then drive a gas or steam turbine to produce power for the steelmaker.

Many electric cars are a match for their fossil fuel counterparts in terms of comfort and performance. One of the main reasons they aren’t more prevalent is that compared with petrol stations, electric car battery chargers aren’t common and the entire charging process can be slow. Universal Energy’s Smart Self-Adaptive Storage Battery Charger improves charging energy efficiency from a conventional 60%-85% up to 97%, which helps make charging at least twice as fast as with traditional chargers. Further, the charger is only about 1/20 the weight of typical charging solutions with the same power output. Universal Energy’s chargers are currently used by the Chinese military, but with their high-performance characteristics, the company is hopeful they’ll receive strong interest from the private sector.

Zeist - Tempress won WWF Holland's Cleantech Star Award 2012. The jury found the company from Vaassen the most distinctive cleantech company in the Netherlands. The award was presented during the third WWF Cleantech Symposium.

Tempress provides innovative machinery and associated technology for the production of highly efficient solar cells. "Tempress has proven that a Dutch company in a very specific industry has a unique world position," said the jury. The jury assessed cleantech companies based on innovation potential, as well as on their contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. The company received the Cleantech Award from jury Chairman and CEO of Siemens Netherlands Ab van der Touw.

At the moment, the Dutch cleantech sector is 21st on the global ranking. WWF Holland would like to see the Netherlands in the top 10 by 2020. In order to achieve that ambition stable regulations, adequate funding and a strong domestic market are necessary. According to WWF Director Johan van de Gronden, "The Netherlands has a cleantech industry with a solid foundation and great potential, both in terms of innovation and the private manufacturing industry."

WWFs Dutch Cleantech Award 2012 will be awarded on December 11, to the most promising cleantech company during the Clean Tech Symposium in Rotterdam. Six companies that make an important contribution to a 100% renewable energy supply have been nominated.

The following companies have been nominated by an independent jury: Hygear, Locamation, SkyNRG, HeatMatrix, Tempress and A. de Jong Group. “The variation in the six nominated companies illustrates the breadth and potency of the cleantech sector. From technological innovation to ICT or chain innovation, from energy savings to smart grids and solar energy to sustainable biofuels,” said jury chairman and CEO of Siemens Netherlands Ab van der Touw as the nominees were announced.

The purpose of the award is to stimulate the cleantech sector in Holland so solutions can grow and reduce emissions worldwide. At present Holland is in 21st place worldwide. Denmark, China and Germany lead the top 25 according to WWF in the Clean Economy, Living Planet report.

“The Dutch cleantech sector already has a good foundation. To get into the top ten worldwide there is a need for stable regulations, adequate funding and a strong domestic market. Only then can the sector take off and enable the Netherlands to reach the top 10,” says WWF Director Johan van de Gronden. Cleantech is seen as one of the drivers of a green economy in both the government manifesto and in a recommendation of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER) on energy and economy cleantech. “Such support is very useful for this sector. We are on the right track. ”

The Cleantech Star Award 2012 is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), together with employers organisation FME-CWM and energy company Eneco. The nominees will present themselves on the WWF Cleantech Symposium which will be held on December 11 at Drijvend Paviljoen in Rotterdam.